Another Woema Winner!

  • Title: Woema Afrikaans First Additional Language Grade 3 Textbook and Workbook Module 1
  • Authors: Cecile Smith and Kara Topham
  • Published by: Pikkie Publications
  • ISBN: 978-1-7764011-8-5
  • Reviewed by: Fiona de Villiers

Independent Education has been lucky enough to receive what in Afrikaans is called a ‘voorsmakie’ (literally, a little ‘before taste’, a sample), of Pikkie Publication’s Woema Afrikaans First Additional Language Grade 3 Textbook and Workbook in the form of Module 1.

Authors Cecile Smith and Kara Topham have prepared the kind of language textbook excellence that teachers have come to associate with Pikkie Publications. The module’s theme is ‘Ek leef in my lyf’, or ‘I live in my body’, a wonderful topic for Grade 3 students to explore.

Smith and Topham first provide learners with a list of new words to add to their Afrikaans vocabulary. I love the little cartoons at the bottom of each page which are intended to soothe learners as they grow their comprehension skills.

Learning new words is a firm foundation: next follows a short passage and questions that the learners can answer. Here they’re dealing with reading and sound. Subsequent imaginative exercises will enable learners to spell unfamiliar words, and then, in an exercise I love, they can stand up away from their desks and move their bodies as they go through ‘The story of your body’.

Pikkie textbooks combine a colourful and well laid out page with a range of exercises that draw on a plethora of skills children will need in any class, such as filling in missing words, and working collaboratively. They’ll also learn how to construct a narrative and to differentiate between similar sounding words.

The module builds to the point where children should be able to speak in Afrikaans about their bodies and then write a short piece about their hearts.

This ‘voorsmakie’ is enough to assure me yet again that another Woema winner has been published!